Sunday, February 23, 2014

I don't often recommend others' books, seeing as how I am trying to sell my own right now. But I have to make an exception for Stephen Kinzer's excellent work, "The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, And Their Secret World War." It is a must-read for all who are interested in genuine American history, not the crap we are taught in American classrooms. Kinzer has laid out in great detail how America, post- WWII, transitioned from a democracy (the one that elected FDR, rose out the Depression and squashed fascism) to a country ruled by a select few (the Dulles brothers and their corporate cronies) in secret. It is shameful that only now is the full truth being exposed, but if you were able to interpret the last 50 years through a discerning lens you probably already suspected that life in America was being controlled by a cabal comprised of its wealthiest and most powerful. Wars, assassinations, attacks, coups, economic calamity, and election fraud have all been arranged for their benefit. This cabal consolidated its power under Dwight Eisenhower in the early '50s when Allen Dulles took over as CIA Director and John Foster Dulles as Secretary of State. Almost immediately leftist foreign governments met their demise and capitalist enterprises reaped windfall profits.

Having seen firsthand the devastation of a global war, Ike was happy to fight another kind of war in the 1950s. A virtually bloodless war staged by spies manipulating events in covert ways. In essence he turned the country over to the Dulles brothers; in return all they had to do was promise that there would be no six million dead in concentration camps, no American GIs committed to foreign soil, no atom bombs dropped here or overseas. Allen and Foster obliged, and they ascended to the throne. With their power they staged coups in Iran, Guatemala, the Congo, and anywhere their clients’ interests were at stake. Who were their clients? The 1% who owned everything–-Dow, the Rockefellers, United Fruit, the duPonts–-and who relied on their legal advisors (Sullivan & Cromwell) and their bankers (Brown Brothers Harriman) to handle their money here and abroad. As shareholders, the Dulles brothers got their cut, of course, and the rest is the history no one knows. For the Dulles brothers were interested only in that part of America that benefitted them, not the rest of us. The rest of us wanted democracy; the Dulleses were invested in oligarchy. The system survives today; their legacy lives on. One percent of Americans feast at the table and the rest of us fight for the crumbs they spill. They’ve owned presidents, politicians, defense contractors, and judges. They’ve rigged the game to their own ends. They’ve starved us, lied to us, and killed us. And used the power of the CIA (Corporations Invisible Army) to do it. All for profit. That’s the Dulles brothers’ America. One president, and only one, challenged them. And see what happened to him in Dallas.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

In my previous post I discussed the harmful effects that right-wing billionaires have on our sociocultural lives. Because of their enormous wealth and power, their evil influence penetrates all strata of American society--in politics, business, education, medicine, the environment, and our collective values (or lack thereof). A new article published in today's Op-Ed News redirects my perspective on this matter. Writer and Op-Ed publisher Rob Kall asserts that billionaires are sociopaths, and we should treat them as such. What is a sociopath? Most psychologists define sociopaths as people who lack a conscience. They are rapacious and greedy without regard for others, and they will say or do anything to get their way. There is a streak of narcissism in sociopaths, who by and large care only for themselves and not one whit for others. This is in line with the American conservative's political philosophy, in that Republicans support policies that promote individual wealth and autocracy at the expense of the greater good.

In his article entitled "Monuments Men, Gestapo Generals, Billionaires," Kall goes even further with his indictment of conscienceless billionaires: "These people are not just wealthy. They are parasites who exploit workers, who are the biggest welfare hogs, using and taking advantage of the government, the commons and the middle class. They are the generals in the class war-- a war that they and their ilk started and have been ginning up. They are enemy generals. Their spending, which I would estimate runs in the billions of dollars, more if you include the welfare and parasitization they engage in, is used to destroy lives, and it actually kills people, or kills their hopes and dreams. They are indeed far worse than billionaire Tom Perkins whined when he spoke of comparing the wealthy to the Jewish victims of Kristallnacht.

"Let's talk about Perkins. This man recently sold his yacht-- the biggest sailing yacht ever built-- 289 feet-- for about $100 million dollars-- at least $50 million less than he paid for it. The Megayacht news website that reported this stated that Perkins kept the personal two man submarine he had built. This man attacks the people of Occupy for challenging the one percent. He feels threatened. He should feel threatened. No, I don't want to do to him as I would do to a Nazi general. But I do want to end his life as a billionaire. I do want to eliminate all billionaires from the planet.

"That doesn't mean I want to kill them or harm them. No. I want to take away what they do not deserve-- their wealth. No sane person deserves, wants or needs billions of dollars. No person needs a 289 foot private sailing yacht. No person needs to privately own a painting or work of art that costs over $100 million. People who feel the need to possess that much money and such obscene, even pornographic possessions are sick. More and more people are saying it takes a sociopath to run a fortune 500 company or to become a billionaire. I've learned a bit about sociopaths and they are part of a collection of predators and malevolent personalities, which include psychopaths, anti-social personalities, narcissists and Borderline personalities. I'd also throw in addicts and hoarders to the list."

What Kall is saying is that the same traits that define someone as mentally deranged in psychological terms are also the traits that propel one to enormous wealth in the dog-eat-dog world of capitalism. This makes me wonder if sociopaths are born or made. DSM, the bible of Psychology, asserts that many sociopaths come from homes where one or both are parents are tyrants. The home is a rigid, tense place where mental or physical abuse may be used on the developing child. The sociopath exhibits then the tendency to be deceptive, discompassionate, and desocial in childhood. He learns that in order to succeed in the world, he needs to amass more power than those who have subjugated him, and by any means necessary he goes about accumulating this power. Since, in America at least, power is wealth, the sociopath's overriding ambition is to gain and hoard as much money as possible.

All this makes me wonder--can we identify the "sociopath" in early life and quarantine him before he does society a great deal of harm. Just think, with this knowledge we might have saved the world from Adolph Hitler, Strom Thurmond, Benito Mussolini, Anthony Scalia, Dick Cheney, John Schnatter, the Koch brothers, and Allen Dulles among many other criminally insane sociopaths. Alas, if we could diagnose and isolate sociopaths, the Tea Party would claim that we were doing too much social engineering. Hey, I can still dream, right?

Kall concludes, "Billionaires are predators who step on, step over and remorselessly destroy, harm or even kill people to reach their goals-- usually to win and dominate. And these people don't become billionaires or successes alone. They corrupt and buy (infect) many people-- politicians, regulators, judges along the blood way to get to the top. Just as generals in wars make decisions to spend the lives of troops, billionaires and CEOs consider the costs of people who are sickened by pollution or who die because they didn't have access to healthcare to be an acceptable part of doing business. And don't dare try to tell me that everyone can go to the emergency room. If that's what you are thinking, crawl back under your rock, like a good insect."

Friday, February 7, 2014

A group of right-wing American billionaires, herded together by the notorious Koch brothers, recently made a big gaffe at their Palm Springs conference. Someone left behind a list of attendees and donors. An alert chamber maid found it and turned it over to left-wing publication Mother Jones. The list exposes some of the wealthiest men and women in the country for who they really are: the greediest, most ruthless, least compassionate, and most hateful people on the planet. They are anti-union, anti-affordable health care, homophobic, anti-minimum wage, anti-middle class, and anti-choice. In other words, they despise the other 99.9% of us. They do not want us to live long, healthy lives. They do not want us to make a living wage. They do not want us to have access to contraceptives, yet they won't allow us to have abortions either. They block alternative energy options. They help elect mean-spirited, narrow-minded sociopaths to carry out these policies so that they can hold onto their power over us.

Among those on the list are John Schnatter, owner of Papa John's Pizza; Dick Weiss of Wells Capital Management; Debra Waller, CEO of Jockey underwear; Dan Kirby of Kirby Financial; Fred Klipsch of Klipsch speakers and headphones; Richard Kayne of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisers; Jamie Coulter of Lone Star Steakhouse; Charles Chandler of Intrust Bank of Wichita; John Griffin of Blue Ridge Capital hedge fund; Robert Rowling, founder of Gold's Gym and Omni Hotels; Tina and Craig Snider, the family that owns Comcast and the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team; and Dick Haworth of Haworth office furniture.

Much of the wealth on this list is inherited, and most of their money is spent on causes which make 99.9% of our lives harder, more restrictive, and less manageable. But there are things we commoners can take comfort in: First--know with certainty that these greedy bastards will one day be forever consigned to the fires of Hell, for they commit all of the Seven Sins that Gandhi warned us about: pleasure without conscience, wealth without work, knowledge without character; commerce without morality; science without humanity; worship without sacrifice; and politics without principle.

Second--we can boycott their products. Well, at least most of them. We don't have the money to buy into their evil hedge funds. But we can certainly stop eating Papa John's pizzas; I find them sloppy, doughy, inedible messes anyway. (It did my heart good when Papa John's shill Peyton Manning got his comeuppance in the Super Bowl.) We can avoid Lone Star steakhouse; my god, their crappy steaks are as tough as John Boehner's leathery hide anyhow. Those of us who can afford to travel can stop staying at rat-infested Omni Hotels. We can start wearing Fruit-of-the-Looms rather than those cheaply made Jockey shorts. We can stop buying Klipsch's overpriced speakers. And we can root for the Philadelphia Flyers to finish last in the league.

Monday, February 3, 2014

Regular readers of this blog are well aware of my assertions of U.S. intelligence malfeasance and atrocities after World War II, including granting asylum and new lives to the most despicable Nazi war criminals imaginable (the CIA's Operation Paperclip). Independent corroboration of my assertions continues to present itself.

An article in today's online version of Business Standard confirms that Operation Paperclip did in fact exist, and it involved the highest echelons of U.S. intelligence in collusion with some of the worst Nazi war criminals of World War II. In essence what our government did was hire Nazis instead of prosecuting them for the murder of six million innocent European citizens.

A new book has laid bare some of the facets of the controversial plan to bring Nazi scientists to the US.

"In 'Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program to Bring Nazi Scientists to America' author Annie Jacobsen uses newly released documents, court transcripts, and family-held archives to give the fullest accounting yet of the plan - one shared by the British, the French, and the Russians, all of whom enlisted and embraced top Nazis, the New York Post reported.

"The Department of Defense had created a top-secret, elite task force called the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency, or JOIA. They were subordinate to the Joint Intelligence Committee, which briefed the Joint Chiefs of Staff on national security threats.

"Jacobsen said that within one year of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the JIC warned the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the US needed to prepare for 'total war' with the Soviets- and to include atomic, chemical, and biological warfare - and that they even set an estimated start date of 1952.

"Unofficial US policy held that it was imperative to secretly bring in those Nazis who could accelerate USA's scientific, technological and economic advancement.

"The Allies held elite Nazis in two luxurious locales: the Palace Hotel in Luxembourg, renamed 'Ashcan,' and Crane Mountain Castle in Hesse, Germany, renamed 'Dustbin.'

"These were the places where the most wicked Nazis lounged in well-appointed rooms, strolled through apple orchards, played chess, smoked and drank, and gave each other lectures in grand halls."

You can read more of Operation Paperclip in my book "Murder Of An American Nazi."

Sunday, February 2, 2014

My Australian counterpart, Greg Maybury, recently wrote a compelling blog about ex-CIA counterintellingence chief James Jesus Angleton, one of the most ruthless, paranoid, and admired spies in Coporations Invisible Army (CIA). I am reprinting a portion of the blog here, along with my reaction to it.

Maybury writes, "...the CIA’s legendary chief of counter-intelligence – its brain for years – was James Jesus Angleton (aka The Kingfisher)...the narrative of the CIA would not be complete without him to be sure.

"He began his career shortly after the formation of the CIA in 1947, and was the station chief in Italy just after the war ended. Here he was instrumental in the undermining of the bourgeoning communist movement taking root in the later 40s, and amongst the tactics he used was eliciting the support of Italy’s Mafia, thereby setting a long-time precedent for the agency that was to feature frequently in its clandestine operations for decades to come.

"He was amongst the most out-there of people, a TS Eliot quoting/loving, chain-smoking, hard-drinking, orchid-growing, fly-fishing, gem collecting, insomniac raconteur who burned the spy-candle at both ends. Exceedingly well read and (counter?) intelligent, he was something of a polymath. In his day many considered this dude the sharpest tool in the spy shed, bar none! JJ’s motto: ‘absolute security at any cost’, one that would prove to be his undoing, as we will see.

"The term ‘Angeltonian’ even entered the espionage vernacular to become a byword in spy circles for overly conspiratorial and/or obsessively paranoid behaviour. Angleton was like DCI Allen Dulles alter ego – he was the uber-counter-spy, the spookiest of spooks in the spookier end of the spook business.

"If his boss Dulles was the Dagger in the Cloak and Dagger business, JJ was the Cloak! His spycraft was apparently second to none in the non-communist world. Even the Soviets had a fan club going of sorts; he was that good at what he did, they even copied his methods, proving that even in the spy world, the ‘imitation as the sincerest form of flattery’ thing still applies. He was once quoted as saying that: ‘Deception is a state of mind and the mind of the state’.

"The origin of his nick-name The Kingfisher is uncertain, but interestingly they are a bird species that have evolved unique visual faculties whereby they can see equally well in polar opposite environments, in their case air and water. A nice metaphor one suspects given his line of work, especially if it was not intended.

"On a more mundane level his nick-name may have been because of his striking features, which were indeed bird-like, if not ‘kingfisherish’. He eventually rose to the position of chief of Counter-intelligence at The Company, and although it’s not known if he ever sought the position or was even offered it, he would have been a prime candidate for Director either way. He could even have interrogated/interviewed himself for the job, a bonus. The motherfucker was that good.

- Spy v Spy Redux -

"He served under Dulles, and then later on Dulles successors, firstly John McCone, then Richard Helms, and for a brief time William Colby. A cryptographer by training (and it has to be said) inclination, he was also very knowledgeable about nuclear technology, having worked on the Manhattan Project (of which more in a later episode), and was apparently involved in the breaking of the Germans’ Enigma code, which did so much to aid the allied effort in the latter part of the War.

"Both these skills were handy during a Cold War. If there is such a thing as spy heaven (a safe house or waiting room in the afterlife maybe?), most of them be coming up to the Kingfisher, high-fiving his avian-eyed ass and be saying how much they ‘love his work’.
As indicated he was as paranoid as they come, for the most part a truly valuable character trait in the counter-spy business, given that the counter espionage and counter intelligence business is all about stopping the targets of your spying from doing what you’re trying to do to them, which is to spy on them. By definition, this means being permanently paranoid.

"Or more accurately, the counter spy/espionage/intelligence ‘schtick’ is more about ensuring that the spies on the other side enjoy minimal success at recruiting your own spies to spy on you and not them as you’d prefer them to continue doing without you finding out about it until it is too late.

"However, like JJ often did, I digress!

"And if Angleton trusted anyone, it is not known whether it worked to their advantage or not, and we’re not even talking about the Soviets here. We’re talking his own – indeed, especially his own – CIA colleagues. He was one of the coldest and most calculating of the Langley Cold Warriors. A strong pro-war hawk on Vietnam, he was also notoriously known for his surveillance of anti-war protesters, political activists and domestic dissidents (of which there were no shortages) during the Vietnam War and throughout the 60’s and early 70’s. He has also been frequently mentioned as having involvement in, knowledge of, and/or connections to the JFK hit and the Norma Jean suicide/accidental death/murder.

- The Hollow Man -

"As good as Angleton was, he wasn’t good enough though to pick up on arguably the biggest spies in the West before they defected to the USSR, who were located in the UK, and operating out of the august Cambridge University.

"As CIA CI chief, part of his responsibility was liaison with foreign intelligence and security officials and spooks, including with Mossad, SAVAK and MI6. Although some say he had his suspicions about the Cambridge group before anyone else did including the British – yes, he was that paranoid – he failed to act on these in time to prevent their subsequent defection. This was an outcome from which he never recovered, and indeed amongst many other missteps, it brought about his downfall eventually, but not for a long time to come.

"After the belated discovery of the aforementioned Cambridge spies (one of whom – Philby – Angleton worked with closely in London during the war, and later got pissed with on a frequent basis, and with whom he shared secrets that got many Western agents killed), Angleton became even more paranoid, seeing spies all over the Langley complex, which began to irritate a lot of people, managing to piss off not only then DCI Richard Helms, but also J Edgar Hoover over at the FBI HQ as well, with Hoover pulling the pin on any further cooperation with the super-spook.

"To piss Edgar off, or to have him pull the pin on you as we’ve seen in an earlier episode, was not all that difficult and certainly not always a good career move to repeat it inside or outside of the FBI. And as for being paranoid, there were few more so than Edgar. But Angleton survived Edgar; he was that ‘good’! And that paranoid! History tells us that paranoia is often proven most justified when it is the most ignored, but many would argue the lessons of history don’t appear to have become a collective political wisdom in the West, and especially some might say in Washington D.C., or for that matter in Langley.

"Not even Angleton though could last forever in the CIA. The culture didn’t make allowances for that. His increasingly pathological paranoia eventually brought him unstuck."

Maybury's apt portrayal of JJ Angleton left me chilled and angry. To think that America was literally turned over, post-WWII, to rats like him and the Dulles brothers never stops infuriating me. Shrewd, ruthless, paranoid, warmongering sociopaths controlled our foreign and domestic policy for over half a century and still do. Of course, they could not have done it in a vacuum. When considering the sources and consequences of Corporation Invisible Army's consolidation of power, one must remember that Operation MK-ULTRA (the covert experimentation with and drugging of innocent Americans) relied on Operation Mockingbird (the subversion of the free press); Operation PBSUCCESS (the overthrow of duly elected foreign governments) went hand in hand with Operation Paperclip (the secret recruitment of Nazi war criminals to serve in our intelligence, medicine, military and aerospace spheres). Angleton and Dulles made sure they could run roughshod over democracy in secret. In so doing, they amassed power unprecedented in our history. More power than presidents, legislative bodies, the Pentagon, and the media combined.

While I concur with most of the content, I take exception to three assertions--one) von Braun was a Nazi...his reputation was softened by a compliant press (which assiduously, and at Dulles's insistence, referred to him as a "German" scientist) once he emigrated to America and his new position at NASA; two) ALL Nazis were war criminals because they either knew of the death camps or participated in the executions; three) Dulles was sympathetic to Hitler and the Reich because his Sullivan and Cromwell clients had big-time investments to protect. Dulles's "Heil Hitler" salutation in correspondences with the Fuhrer is telling.

May Angleton and Dulles and all the other rats burn in hell for eternity.

About Me

I am a freelance writer. My current novel, "The President's Mortician," is for sale on amazon.com, barnesand noble.com, and my publisher's website, Neverland Publishing. To read more about me and the book, visit neverlandpc.com and click on "Titles."